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Alessandro de' Medici
Pontormo, (Jacopo Carrucci) (Jacopo Carrucci; Italian, 1494-1557)
1534–35
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 35.3 × 25.8 cm (13 7/8 × 10 1/8 in.); Framed: 47.7 × 42 × 6.1 cm (18 3/4 × 16 1/2 × 2 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This painting is a preliminary study of Alessandro de’ Medici that Jacopo da Pontormo and his workshop could consult during the creation of larger, formal portraits. Born the illegitimate child of Pope Clement VII and an enslaved African woman named Simonetta, Alessandro was appointed Duke of Florence in 1529. Known as “il Moro” (the Moor), then a common descriptor for people of African descent, his attempts to centralize authority fueled his reputation as a shrewd but tyrannical ruler. His short-lived reign ended with his assassination at his cousin’s hand.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
